Chapter Eleven /He Watched, and He Waited -Confident and Watchful: Continued

 

Next, notice how watchful Elijah was.  He sent his attendant back, not once or twice, but seven times!  We might imagine the attendant tiring of such a repetivitive task, but Elijah remained eager for sign and he did not give up.  Finally, after his seventh trip, the attendnt reported: "Look!  There is a small cloud like a man's pallm ascending out to the sea."  Can you picture that attendant  holding his arm outstrectch  and using his palm to gauge the size of one little cloud coming up out of the horizon of the Great Sea? The attendant may have been unimpressed.  To Elijah, though, that cloud was significant.  He now gave his attendant urgent  directions:"Go up, say to Ahab, 'Hitch up! And go down tha the downpour  may not detain you!'" - 1 KINGS 18:44.

Again, Elijah set a powerful example for us.  We too live at a time when God will soon act to fulfill his purpose.  Elijah awaited the end of a drought; God's servants today await the end of a corrupt  world system of things. (1 John 2:17)  Until Jehovah God acts, we must keep ever on the watch, as Elijah did.  God's own Son, Jesus, advised his followers:  "Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming."  (Matthew 24:42) Did Jesus mean that his followers would completely in the dark as to when the end would come?  No, for he spoke at length about what the world would be like in the days leading up to the end. All of us can observe the fulfill,memt pf tjos detailed sign of "the conclusion of the system of things." - Read MATTHEW 24:3-7. 

Each facet of that sign furnishes powerful, convincing evidence.  Is such evidence enough to move us to act wiht urgency in our service to  Jehovah? One little cloud from the horizon was enough to convince Elijah that Jehovah was about to act.  Was the faithful prophet disappointed?

Next time: Chapter Eleven/ He Watched, and He Waited - Jehovah Brings Relief and Blessings

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